Jefferson Davis descendant OK with UT’s decision to move statue

David Steven Littlefield testified in state district court Thursday that a statue of Jefferson Davis commissioned nearly 100 years ago by his relative, George Washington Littlefield, should remain on the Main Mall of the University of Texas.

“I tend to agree with the president,” Hayes-Davis told the Standard, which is part of UT’s Moody College of Communication and the college’s KUT radio. “If it’s causing a discrimination or an unfamiliar or uncomfortable scenario for those folks that look at the statue, I must agree that we don’t want to make anybody uncomfortable with the fact that Jefferson Davis represents something that they may not understand.”

Hayes-Davis is the former executive director of Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis Home in Biloxi, Miss., that houses Davis’ presidential library.

As for whether removing the statue from one of the most public places on campus diminishes the opportunity for people to learn about Davis, he said: “I think it actually expands that opportunity because then you have it in a historic place where people really come to understand history. And it gives, I think, a better opportunity to disclose all of the facts about Jefferson Davis that aren’t known to the American public,” such as his service as a member of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, as well as his oversight of the transcontinental railway while serving as U.S. secretary of war.

David Steven Littlefield, who testified that his great-grandfather was a first cousin to George Washington Littlefield, a UT regent and Confederate officer, doesn’t see the Briscoe setting as an improvement.

“I think it’s just absolutely silly for them to move those statues based on someone being offended,” he said.

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